After two years of work with us, Xiomara has decided to leave. She will be having a baby in seven months. She had difficulties in our absence and decided it was time to leave.
We also need to make some changes in the farm. We have a lot of things falling through the cracks. While we were gone, we had three workers, but beans were left to rot in the field, tomatoes were chopped down as well as yuca (a root crop that takes eight months to grow). One of the workers already left, but we need to change the most senior worker. Thankfully Enrique wants to stay. He is absolutely the best thing we have going as he does not mind getting dirty and picking up free food for the pigs at the farmers market.
Gerardo will be taking his second of three weekly trips to Tegucigalpa for dialysis tomorrow. This will happen until he gets a transplant. For now, Antonio and Jose are driving him in the little truck. I expect this to get really old real soon as it takes an entire day. Honestly, finding a matching kidney would be a miracle as there is no donor database. To be realistic, I think the best that could happen is if someone would donate a dialysis machine that we could use locally. Gerardo's biological mother is a possible match, but thus far she really hasn't been willing to take any tests. She acted as if she would do anything, but has not backed it up with actions. Right now our biggest expense for Gerardo's care is just transportation to and from the hospital, which amounts to $120/week. Hopefully with the cutbacks in labor, we can cover some of Gerardo's care.
I hope to position the farm so that it requires less labor. Unless someone is with the workers full time, little of value gets done. Since I am teaching school in the morning and running errands in the afternoon, supervision is lacking. If we plant more fruit trees and shrubs, I think the farm can easily get by with two workers instead of three.